Hyperthyroidism

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By: Re'Nisha Harbour & Michael Hetzer


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Hyperthyroidism in the throat

This is an enlarged thyroid in the throat.

Hyperthyroidism


An excess of circulating free thyroxine causes hyperthyroidism. Thyroxine is a form of thyroid hormones. The follicular cells of the thyroid gland secrete the major hormones from thyroxine. It causes an overactive metabolism and increases the speed of all the body's natural processes.Thyroid hormone generally controls the pace of all of the processes in the body, metabolism. Every function of the body tends to speed up if there is too much thyroid hormone.

Triiodothyronine

A thyroid horone that is similar but with one fewer iodine atom per molecule. Also, T3 exhibits greater activity and is produced in smaller quantity.It is the most powerful thyroid hormone, and affects almost every process in the body, including body temperature, growth, and heart rate.

Thyroxine

Thyroxine, T4, is released from the thyroid gland. This hormone is formed by combing tyrosine and iodine. While attached to a protein its stored in the follicle stems between the thyroid glands. Thyroxine goes in the bloodstream attached to the protein plasma globulin. While in the bloodstream thyroxine doubles the mitochondria in the cells which doubles the basal metabolic rate.

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Caused By

The major causes of hyperthyroidism are:
  • Graves' disease
    • A thyroid disorder characterized by goiter (swelling in the neck ), exophthalmos (bulging of the eye anteriorly out of the orbit), "orange-peel" skin, and hyperthyroidism. It is caused by an antibody-mediated auto-immune reaction, but the trigger for this reaction is still unknown. It is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism in the world, and the most common cause of general thyroid enlargement in developed countries.
  • Toxic thyroid adenoma
    • An oncocytic cell(large cells) in the thyroid that is often associated with Hashimoto's thyroiditis(an autoimmune disease where the body's own antibodies attack the cells of the thyroid) as well as follicular thyroid cancer.
  • Toxic multinodular goitre
    • A form of thyroid cancer which occurs more commonly in women of over 50 years old

Signs and Symptoms

Symptoms of hyperthyroidism or "overactive thyroid gland" include weight loss, anxiety, and intolerance to heat, fatigue, weakness, hyperactivity, irritability, apathy, depression, polyuria, polydipsia, and sweating. Strokes can also greater your risk of having Hyperthyroidism.


Diagnosis

The Diagnosis is made through blood tests. They find abnormalities by measuring the level of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) in the blood. A low TSH indicates increased levels of T4 and/or T3 in the blood, which enables the doctors to figure out what it is.


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This is a picture of a thyroid being taken out.

Treatments

One of the treatments is by using suppressive thyrostatics medication, surgery, and radiation therapy.


This is a video of Thyroidectomy.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperthyroidism
http://www.medicinenet.com/hyperthyroidism/article.htm
www.endocrineweb.com/hyper1.html -
http://video.google.com/videoplaydocid=5488639440746023352&q=hyperthyroidism&total=46&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=9
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-thyroxin.html